I couldn’t tell you about any other table I
had that day. But I can tell you one thing:
The words of this memorable woman will forever be burned into my brain.
When I heard what she said, not only did my
jaw drop, I wanted to give her a kiss, clap loudly and yell out to the entire
restaurant. “Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner folks! The best diner-of-the-year award goes to this
woman!”
Okay I might be exaggerating slightly. However, at the
very least I wanted to give that woman a solid pat on the back. I think my actual words were, “Oh my god, I
love you,” under my breath.
Her table started with two people, then it grew
to four, then five and then to six. My
server assistant and I eventually had to add an extra table and place settings,
etc... the whole nine yards. They were
ordering their appetizers and food at different times; some were drinking
heavily and others not at all. It was a
very unorganized group, the kind that usually gets under our skin. And it
would have if it weren’t for my new favorite lady of the hour.
When it was time to print the check, I rolled
my eyes and thought to myself, “This is definitely going to be a ridiculously
annoying separate check situation.” Right
when I dropped the check, the frantic ladies began to reach for their wallets. Dear
god…here it comes…
But then, like the sound of angel playing the
harp at the end of a rainbow, the quote that will never be forgotten played
like music to my ears, “I got this,” she said. “Ladies, please put your purses away. My husband and I have stopped hanging out
with couples because of separate checks.
Please. Here you go miss,” and handed me her credit card.
Say what?!? Un-friended friends over separate
checks?!? Is this lady for real? I really do love this woman.
Granted the day wasn’t even that busy. Nor would it have really mattered that much
if I had to split the check six ways. Splitting checks is annoying and time
consuming, but absolutely a part of our crazy industry. It
was just the way she said it; so bold and not taking “No” for an answer. And the fact that she had apparently parted
ways with some friends over it was hilarious!
And admitting it was quite impressive (from a servers point of view of
course). Those friends she’d parted ways with, however, might have a different
opinion.
I’ve written many posts that were much more
profound than this one, I’ll admit. But
lately there haven’t been a lot of noteworthy people to write about. And as I started to write this post, I
realized this lady stood out much more than any of the other negative people I
could have written about.
And I wanted to
stay as positive as I could.
In addition, being that Serving Humanity started out as an informative medium about the
service industry, it’s in my best interest to share how much we appreciate one
check tables for large parties.
We practically do want to give an award for people who step up and pay the check
for everyone. Splitting checks really is that much of a pain.
But if you knew you could be that memorable and
make someone’s day, wouldn’t you do the same?
And for all of you out there who do what this woman did, we thank
you from the bottom of our little serving hearts.
~ HK ~
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